Bob and Carol were back at Cambridge Park Bowls Club after the summer holidays, and surprised by what they saw.

“What a lot of new members here! It will be great to get to know them all, wouldn’t it, Carol?”

“A lot of them are women as well. And they’ve just started a new junior group. We’ll have to bring our kids along next week. I’m sure their friends would love it too.”

They soon settled down to play and had reached this position when Ted and Alice arrived. Carol, playing Black, was just about to play her seventh move.

“Interesting position”, exclaimed Ted. “Are you trying out a new opening?”

“Wait a minute!”, added Alice. “I think I’ve worked out what the first moves were.”

Can you do as well as Alice? How did Bob and Carol reach this position after White’s seventh move?

I left you with this simple pawn ending with White to play on Monday.

It looks obvious for White to continue with b4, a4 and b5 here, but, as White discovered in the game, it’s only a draw. You’ll queen your h-pawn first, but the resulting QvP ending will be drawn.

Paradoxically, the only winning move here is a3, which superficially appears to be a move slower, but reaches a winning QvP ending because you promote on h8 when the black king is on b3 rather than b2.

Would you have found this playing on increments?

You can play through the ending here: as always click on any move for a pop-up window.

What could be simpler than this pawn ending?

It’s from Isaac Lam – Rock Yu (Kingston Invitational 2026).

White to play. How would you continue?

This is Philidor – Wilson (London 1789). Black has just mistakenly moved his rook to e8 (d8 would have been better). I’m sure you can do better than Philidor and find the best continuation here.

I suggested on Monday that, judging from games like this, Philidor might have struggled to make our C team.

Perhaps I was right: first with the correct answer was C/D team star (and one of the team behind our successful new junior group) David.

White should have continued 29. Re1!, continuing, for example, 29… Qf7 30. Rxe8+ Qxe8 31. Qe5 and White is winning the ending.

Instead he played the imaginative but sub-optimal 29. Qe5!?. Black lost the ending quickly after Qxe5, but 29… Qd8! holds after, for example, 30. Qxe8!? Qxe8 31. Rc8 Qxc8 32. Ne7+ Kf7 33. Nxc8.

The game was played at unusual odds: Philidor played without his queen’s knight and his opponent without his f-pawn.

Click on any move to play through the game in a pop-up window.

Thanks to Roger Scowen for informing me that today marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of the great François-André Danican Philidor, a renowned composer of operas, instrumental and sacred music, but also the leading chess player of the 18th century. He was the first player who had a genuine understanding of many positional concepts.

Of course chess has moved on a lot since then: looking at his games I think he’d struggle to find a place in our C team.

This is Philidor – Wilson (London 1789). Black has just mistakenly moved his rook to e8 (d8 would have been better). I’m sure you can do better than Philidor and find the best continuation here.

Bharat Kumar – Sedykh (Kingston 2026). White continued 29. dxc6 and soon lost.

He should have continued 29. Nxe6+! 30. Qxe6 Ne5! (or 30… Qd4+ 31. Kf1 Ne5! with the same result) 31. Qg8+ Ke7 32. Qe6+ with a perpetual check.

Congratulations to everyone who solved this correctly.

Here’s a random position from the recent Kingston tournament for you to analyse this Bank Holiday Monday.

Bharat Kumar – Sedykh. White to play.

How would you assess this position?

How would you continue here?

What result would you expect?

Mike Healey has annotated his game from our London League match against Streatham last May.

If you’re familiar with Mike’s play you’ll know what to expect. As he says, an interesting and hard-fought game, with some interesting ideas and many wacky positions.

As always, to play through the game, click on any move for a pop-up window.

If you’ve played any interesting games recently which you’d like to see published, please do submit them to me, ideally with annotations. The more content we can provide, the better.

On Monday I left you with this position from Adam A Taylor (2269) – Sanjit Kumar (2074) (Kingston 2026 Round 3) with white to play.

Black’s last move, 71… Rf1-h1, was a blunder. The four drawing moves were Ra1, Rb1, Rc1 (good to get as far away as possible from the white king to check horizontally) and Kh7.

Now White could have brought home the full point by playing for mate.

72. Kf6 Kh7 (72… Rxh4 73. Rg7 f3 74. g5+ Kh5 75. Kf5) 73. Kxf7 Rxh4 74. Rg7+ Kh6 (74… Kh8 75. g5 f3 76. Rg8+ Kh7 77. g6+ Kh6 78. Rh8+ Kg5 79. g7 f2 80. g8=Q+) 75. Rg6+ Kh7 76. g5 f3 77. Rf6 and wins.

Sadly for him, he missed his chance, playing 72. Rh5+ instead, and the game was drawn on move 85.

Not so easy, of course, at the end of a long and tiring game with little time left on the clock. Which is why you need to practise endings if you want to improve.

A test of your rook ending skills this week.

Adam A Taylor – Sanjit Kumar (Kingston 2026 Round 3). White to play.

How would you continue, and why? As always, I need more than just your first move.